USL First Division Week 4 Wrap

By: Bob Kellett | May 4th, 2008

Friday

Charleston Battery 2-0 Rochester Rhinos - After watching all the other kids take part in the reindeer games, Rochester finally kicked off their 2008 season. It was a rough start for the team that is no longer raging. Randi Patterson and Aaron King scored for the Battery, lifting Charleston in a game played in front of an announced 3,355 at Blackbaud Stadium. The marginally diligent blogger that I am, I watched a fair amount of this game to get a look at Rochester. Two things struck me. They looked like a team that is severely lacking foot speed and a team that has not played enough together to be remotely organized in the back. And they are not super fit. Charleston took advantage of this to pick up their first win of the season. I always enjoy watching games from Charleston. Their play-by-play guy is top notch.

Atlanta Silverbacks 0-2 Seattle Sounders - It was a replay of the 2007 USL First Division championship and the result was the same. Seattle played its best game of the young season, picking up three road points behind goals from Leighton O’Brien and Sebastien LeToux. O’Brien’s goal came directly off of a corner kick, which tells you a thing or two about Atlanta’s keeper Ryan McIntosh. The Silverbacks did put up a fight in the second half, but boy are they an inconsistent team. One game they look great, the next they look horrible. A season-low crowd of 1,928 showed up for this one. That is a depressing figure for a club that has invested a lot of money in building a classy soccer complex in Atlanta, but can’t get anyone in the area to take notice. The Timbers drew more for their opener than Atlanta have for their first three games combined.

Montreal Impact 1-0 Puerto Rico Islanders - Montreal’s seemingly never-ending road trip has taken them to Vancouver, Miami, Atalanta and now Puerto Rico. I’d say the Impact are probably pretty pleased to have come away with a pair of wins and a pair of losses. They picked up three points in Puerto Rico on Friday evening thanks to a goal by Joey Gjertsen in the 82nd minute. I’ve watched video of the goal a couple of times and I still don’t know how it went in. Perhaps it was magic. In any case, the loss is Puerto Rico’s second at home and leaves the Islanders with just three points from four games. They played a man up from the 40th minute and let this one slip away. The Islanders have had a brutal start in the stands too with 2,742 in attendance for this one. It doesn’t help that they have had monsoon conditions for all three of their home games.

Sunday

Minnesota Thunder 1-0 Rochester Rhinos - Technical difficulties on USL Live prevented me from watching this one live as I had planned, which was just as well since Sunday afternoon might have been the nicest in the history of Portland weather and I didn’t need to be squinting at my computer anyway. It was the home opener for the Thunder and the 4,215 on hand saw the Thunder pick up their second win in three games. Minnesota looks poised to be the most improved team this year. Alen Marcina scored in the 26th minute and keeper Nic Platter picked up the assist. Rochester has started the season without scoring a goal in their first 180 minutes.

Miami FC Blues 0-1 Carolina RailHawks - This game can be summed up by the words of a Peruvian international who was briefly on the broadcast: “This game no good”. It was, indeed, an ugly affair between a Miami team that isn’t skillful enough to play a beautiful Brazilian style that its coach Zinho wants and a Carolina team that has no interest in playing an attractive style. Carolina plays ugly, but it works from time to time. This was one of those times. Dizzy Antoniuk scored in the 87th minute to lift the RailHawks to their second win of the season and into second place in the table. Your paid attendance on a lovely afternoon in Miami: 1,320. The home crowd has not seen the Blues win in three home games this season.

USL First Division Table
What a muddled mess the table is early in the season.

Average Attendance (home games)
Portland (3) - 8,597
Vancouver (2) - 5,139
Carolina (1) - 5,102
Minnesota (1) - 4,215
Charleston (2) - 3,839
Puerto Rico (3) - 3,138
Atlanta (3) - 2,514
Miami (3) - 2,380
Seattle (0)
Rochester (0)

League average (18): 4,287